One of the world’s hottest new oilfields, if not the hottest, lies off the shores of Guyana in northeast South America where the politics are smoking hot with the neighboring Venezuela threatening to move in.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been hassling ExxonMobil and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the area March 26-27 to warn him not to try to take the oil-laden Essequibo region of Guyana.

Maduro held an election on May 25 to choose a Venezuelan governor and legislators to take control of the Essequibo.

ExxonMobil has 45 percent of the estimated 11.6 billion barrels of oil that would eventually be recovered from the Stabroek Block off-shore with Chevron holding 30 percent and the China National Off-shore Oil Corp. 25 percent.

Odessa oilman Kirk Edwards and Waco e

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